Will Malaysia drop to be one of the most corrupt states in Asia by the end of the decade losing out to China, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines in TI CPI 2030 after being overtaken by Taiwan and South Korea in the last two decades?
Did the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Forum 2022 held this week dealt with the burning issue of corruption in Malaysia – whether Malaysia will drop to be one of the most corrupt states in Asia by the end of the decade losing out to China, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines in Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2030 after being overtaken by Taiwan and South Korea in the last two decades?
It does not appear to have done so, compounding the omission with a most misleading and tendentious speech by a former chief justice - ignoring the three elephants in the room: the 1MDB scandal; the appointment of Dzulkifli Ahmad as the MACC chief from 1st August 2016 to 14th May 2018 and the 5-point drop in score from 53 to 48 and 11-point drop in rank in two years in TI CPI 2021, the worst two years in 27 years of TI CPI.
Is Malaysia heading for the worst TI CPI score and ranking in the TI CPI 2022 which will be released next January?
Will Malaysia first lose out to China, then to India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines by the end of the decade?
As the Manifesto Rakyat on anti-corruption pointed out: “Public perception of corruption in Malaysia has rapidly deteriorated over the last three years. According to the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International , Malaysia scored 53 out of 100 in 2019, the best score in a decade but slid down to 48 in 2021. A systemic, whole-of-society response is critically required to address this trend.”
The relevant parliamentary select committees should summon the MACC Chief Commissioner to testify what is being done to ensure that Malaysia will not drop to be one of the most corrupt states in Asia by the end of the decade losing out to China, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines in TI CPI 2030 after being overtaken by Taiwan and South Korea in the last two decades?
The hope that Malaysia might become one of the world’s top 30 countries in public integrity by 2030 under the Pakatan Harapan government was destroyed by the Sheraton Move conspiracy on Feb. 26, 2020.
The country was promised that under the former UMNO-BN regime in the last decade that Malaysia would achieve the target to be in the top 30 countries in the world in public integrity and anti-corruption.
Studying the TI CPI ranking and score for the 24-year series of TI CPI from 1995-2018, there was no ground for anyone to believe that the target of Malaysia being ranked in the top 30 countries of TI CPI could be achieved.
Countries which had been down on the list of the TI CPI ranking in the first series in 1995, like China, Thailand, India and Indonesia, were fast catching up to Malaysia’s level, which had regressed since 1995.
Fortunately, this trajectory was stopped when the Pakatan Harapan government took over, and in the TI CPI 2019, Malaysia achieved the best TI CPI performance in 25 years with a single-year improvement of six points for TI CPI score and 10 placings for TI CPI ranking – a ranking of No. 51 and score of 53 out of the 100.
Now we are back on the slippery slope of corruption as before the 14th General Election on May 9, 2018 and the worst is yet to come from Azam-gate and worsening of the system of integrity in public life.
From the TI CPI records of the Najib administration from 2010-2018, it is likely that China would have overtaken Malaysia in the TI CPI series before 2030.
This was stopped by the 14th General Election in 2018 as the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government made it quite an impossible task for China to overtake Malaysia in TI CPI reports.
But with the Sheraton Move conspiracy and the two backdoor Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri governments, China may overtake Malaysia in both TI CPI score and ranking by 2025 as China’s present score is 45 compared to Malaysia’s 48 out of 100.
The same applies to Indonesia.
In the TI CPI 2021, Indonesia is ranked No. 96 with a score of 38 as compared to Malaysia’s rank of 62 and score of 48.
The sad scenario of Indonesia overtaking Malaysia may come about before 2030 if Malaysia continues to regress in anti-corruption while Indonesia continues to make progress on this front.
The same sad story applies to India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Philippines, and if Malaysia does not buck up in the anti-corruption front, it is not inconceivable that some these Asia countries may even overtake Malaysia in the TI CPI before 2025!
The plight of Malaysia’s ant-corruption campaign is highlighted by the shocking possibility that a convicted criminal on corruption can become the 10th or 11th Prime Minister of Malaysia, which will mark the end of the Malaysian Dream of the country being a world-class great nation, better than China, Indonesia and India in many fields of human endeavour because Malaysia is able to leverage on the best values and virtues of the four great civilisations which meet in confluence in Malaysia – Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western.